Those frustrations look to finally be relieved as NVIDIA has unveiled its mobile Kepler bid at Computex 2012 in Taiwan. With Ultrabooks and ultrathins the vogue item, NVIDIA has big plans for its cool-running 28 nm GPU chips. But NVIDIA's mobile Kepler push may start on bulkier gaming laptops -- ts just announced flagship model is so powerful, it's unclear whether it will be suitable for ultrabooks

The GPU line will be headlined by the GeForce GTX 680M, which features 1,344 CUDA Cores clocked at 720 MHz. That's quite impressive, given that the desktop GTX 680 "only" packs 1,536 cores clocked at 1,006 MHz. In other words, expect this mobile GPU to be much closer to its desktop counterpart in performance than past designs.

Dell, Inc. (DELL) subsidiary Alienware is already salivating at the new chip. It's loading the new chip aboard the M17x and M18x. Micro-Star International Comp. Ltd. (TPE:2377) and Clevo also have designs in the works, including MSI's GT70.

The Alienware M18x [Image Source: NVIDIA]

Initial models will pack 2 GB of GDDR5, but some models may eventually get 4 GB of GDDR5, for a slight performance bump.

Much as Kepler's desktop variants are slowly percolating down into the midrange-to-budget desktop space, expect less powerful version of this mobile core to wind up in ultrathins, such as the GTX 640M that will be onboard the Acer Inc. (TPE:2353) TimelineU M3 Ultrabook.

Thermals: too much heat output and not enough cooling capacity on tap, and it only gets worse when combined with standard-voltage CPUs like what Sony uses on its Z-series laptops (too loud, too hot).

Performance: in most cases mobile GPUs are the bottleneck in laptop gaming. The 680M will shift that to the CPU. Most ultrabooks use dual-core CPUs, so it's going to be an issue. Heck, in most usage-cases this chip is way overkill.

Product positioning: many ODMs are unwilling to cannibalize their own product lines by putting the 680M in ultrabooks.

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